NY-How the School Aid Formula Became Unrecognizable

How the school aid formula became unrecognizable

How the school aid formula became unrecognizable

[T]he governor’s new mandate is seen by many in the education community as an attempt to divert attention from a much more complicated and costly issue: how aid is divided up among school districts.

Since a school-by-school analysis cannot be accurate if a district-by-district allocation is out of whack, New York State Association of School Business Officials Executive Director Michael Borges said, the governor’s idea is “putting the cart before the horse.”

The governor’s mandate has also left school boards and superintendents deeply frustrated for a couple of reason. First, they were already working on a similar requirement under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, but under the state’s mandate they have less time to complete the task.

Second, according to Dave Albert of the New York State School Boards Association, the state Division of the Budget and the state Education Department “could undermine the budgeting authority” of school boards by withholding aid if a report is not submitted, or is not submitted in the proper format.